Hey all. Just thought I would post up on here. I recently acquired a 1980 single cab. My plan is to turn it into a crawler. It is pretty rough at the moment. All the truck had was motor, tranny, transfer case, axles and tires.

When I picked the truck up it had a 20r motor that was locked up. I have replace that with a 1978 20r which I am still trying to get running. Both axles have to be rebuilt also.

I plan on doing hydraulic steering, 4 link front and back, converting it to run on propane, and building a full cage. But, for the sake of time and money all this may have to be done gradually. Especially since we have a 4 wheel trip planned for this March. I will post pics as I do things. Any tips, tricks, advice, or just plain comments are welcome. Wish me luck!

 

Sounds like a good plan.

 

take a look at other build threads...
since you are talking crawler I am thinking you are gonna want to go dual cases...if so take a look at the input shaft on your TC, some 79-80's shaft need to be clearanced to properly engage a dual case adapter...pics in my mini FAQ linked in my sig..

 

Yea I have been checking out other threads. I am new to the forum so I am weeding through all the threads gradually. And yes the dual tc's are another of my eventualities. The tranny I have in it currently is a standard. I am going to try that out first and then decide if I want to keep that or go with an automatic, then I will install the dual tc's.

 

Thanks for the help btw Dropzone.

 

Make lots of pics, I have wrecked 82 that I want to do the same thing to. Prolly be next winter I have just about used up my toy time allowance for this one, got a tractor tranny to work on and a tractor engine to overhaul, then paint the tractor before next hay season.

 

Will do Elger. Good luck on that tractor.

 

Ok so small update with hopefully some picks to follow. I have gotten a fuel cell, and I am currently waiting on the gaskets to come so that I can rebuild carb. Over this past weekend I got my radiator core support, steering box, and some new tires. I still need to find some 16.5 rims to fit onto the tires. This is proving difficult however since I need six lug. I would love to run the H1 wheels with the bead lockers but the cost of the wheels and recentering is just not feasible at this point considering the amount of work needed to be done on the truck in the next 8 weeks. May end up just going with the pro comp crawler wheels from 4wheel parts. That's about the best deal I have seen so far.

 

looks like a sweet rig man

 

Alright so finally have some stuff mounted up and with a week and a half before this thing is supposed to hit the trail I still have a lot of work to do. But I got seats mounted, recentered 16.5 beadlockers woth military 37's all the way around, h3 lights and new calipers, and new Yukon 4.11 gears in the rear.

 

Well, after essebtially a week of late nights and a lot of help from friends, I have gotten a lot done. But a dream killer hit tonight. After getting all the wiring completed, radiator hooked up and everything seemingly right, a water leak was noticed. After closer inspection it was coming from the around the header base. Blown head gasket. So the build is stalled until I get a new motor or figure a solution.

 

Tear that sucker down and check out the head and block. Make sure both are straight, throw another gasket on and finish it up!

Don't let that mess you up..head gasket changes aren't the easiest, but they are pretty easy in comparison to most vehicles.

 

Yea. Decided to do that. But with the time frame I had that threw me off just enough. Ended up throwin some lockers in my buddies suburban for this trip and I'll get back on the Yota after we get back and get it ready for the next trip. Thanks for the encouragement!!

 

Yeah don't let that stop you. you gotta good project going just tear her down and rebuild it up nice so you don't have to worry about it later. Take lots of pics!

 

Yea. I have some more pics than what I have posted. Here is the Facebook that all the wives have created for our group. There are some more recent pics of my build and my buddies 92 extend cab yota he built.
http://m.facebook.com/pages/Gettin-T...%2Fsearch&_rdr

 

So finally tore my 20r down last night and immediately found the source that was allowing water to leak into the motor. It appears the previous owner either rebuilt the motor or attempted to put on a new head gasket. In doing so they scraped off the old gasket with an air chisel or were just really careless with whatever they used. They created huge gouges in the head and some of which run at least six inches if not more across the length of the head. The head appears slightly warped also. So I am to have to take the head and get it milled. And since I am this far in the timing chain is getting replaced, even though it looks fairly new it has a small amount of rust. Probably just due to condensation in the motor as it sat unused with no oil in it. I am going to pull the oil pan and see what else the previous owner replaced or at least attempted to. More updates to follow!

 

Also does anyone know where I can get either the stock air intake or a cold air for my 20r? I checked rockauto and a few other sites where I can usually find parts but all they have is filters.

 

PM sent cregs, ive got what youre lookin for.

 

Ok so I found a really good deal on a fuel injected complete chevy powerplant so I am now selling my toyota setup. I'm selling both 20r motors and transmission and tcase. I live in Texas in the dfw area. Here is the Craigslist posting for it. Make an offer if you are interested.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/sdf/pts/3978612244.html

 

Ok so I am dropping the price on this stuff to 350.